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<p><SPAN class="panel-title"> Top 10 Rookie Author Gaffes -- BayCon 2012 </SPAN> <SPAN class="venue"> Santa Clara, CA </SPAN> <SPAN class="dateline"> 27.05.2012 10.00h </SPAN></p>
<ul class="taglist">
<li class="tags">
Writing Mistakes
</li>
<li class="tags">
Rookie Writers
</li>
<li class="tags">
Submissions
</li>
<li class="tags">
Revision
</li>
</ul>
<BR/>
<DIV class="intro">
What are the most common ways to prevent your first sale, and how can you avoid them? Why do so many of them involve teenage vampires?
</DIV>

<DIV class="panelists">
<ul>
<li>Marty Halpern</li>
<li>Eytan Kollin</li>
<li>Brandon Sanderson</li>
<li>Berry Kercherval</li>
<li>Leslie Ann Moore
</DIV>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="resources">Resources</h3>
<DIV class='bibliography'>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6710">Learn Writing With Uncle Jim</a></li>
<li><a href="http://wikidpad.sourceforge.net/">Wikipad person wiki</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.inkpunks.com/2012/04/04/guest-post-9-ways-to-piss-off-an-editor-by-james-l-sutter/">Nine Ways to Piss Off An Editor</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Chicago-Manual-Style-Publishers/dp/0226103897">Chicago Manual of Sytle</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/home/index.html">Publisher's Weekly</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-beware/">Strauss, Victor, and Anne Crispin. Writer Beware</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.inkpunks.com/">Ink Punks Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.kaykenyon.com/2012/03/26/eight-things-i-wish-a-pro-had-told-me/">Eight Things I Wish a Pro Had Told Me</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.copyblogger.com/">Copy Blogger {Word Press}</a>
</DIV>

</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="notes">Notes</h3>
<div class="notes">

<h3 id="top-10-mistakes">Top 10 Mistakes:</h3>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
<li>Too much or too little revision</li>
<li>Outlining -- doing it makes it easier</li>
<li>Writing the story of an RPG adventure</li>
<li>Fall in love with your own writing</li>
<li>Not having a 'style guide' (&quot;bible&quot;) -- which can also later help copy editor</li>
<li>Fixating on ideas, rather than on improving craft</li>
<li>Steal but don't get caught</li>
</ol>
<p>Ideas are cheap</p>
<h3 id="do">Do:</h3>
<ol style="list-style-type: decimal">
<li>Engaging viewpoint</li>
<li>Show don't tell</li>
<li>Prose that moves</li>
<li>Include only relevant details</li>
</ol>
<p>Be workman-like. Take out what doesn't belong.</p>
<p>In most cases, you can't have relatives do the critiquing</p>
<p>Critique groups -- critique must be about the story, not the writer, and totally honest.</p>
<p>Good readers can help you write a better version of <em>your</em> story not theirs.</p>
<p>Don't keep reworkshopping your same idea over and over.</p>
<p>Learn to write stories out of prompts for a few years.</p>
<p>The best writing can convey more, is &quot;heavier&quot;.</p>
<p>Write every day. Finish what you start. Submit.</p>
<p>Brandon writes highlights for a scene, and includes bullet points of what must be foreshadowed in that scene. That makes buillet points for the chapter.</p>
<p>&quot;points on a map&quot; writers</p>
<p>Special bits are your reward. In putting down connections, you discover new aspects.</p>
<p>Write when your mind is freshest.</p>
<p>Bring your spouse/roommates into the process you CANNOT be interrupted.</p>
<p>Writing can consume your life. Writers sometimes can have low social skills due to lack of social interaction.</p>
<h3 id="submission-process">Submission process</h3>
<p>Revise and resubmit. Long feedback invites a resubmission (unless explicitly stated otherwise). Query the editor if need be.</p>
<p><em>Read</em> the submission guidelines.</p>
<p>Micropresses can be very hardnosed in the submission guidelines.</p>
<p>Act professional.</p>
<p>Know what the target market actually publishes (including genre).</p>
<p>Treat it like a business, and network with other writers.</p>
<p>World Fantasy Convention is a business conference. Also Worldcon.</p>
<p>Learn the publishing houses in your genre -- including which editors work there, and on which projects. Later you can cite it if you talked to an editor.</p>
<p>Follow editor blogs.</p>
<p>Never assume that simultaneous submissions are OK.</p>
<p>6 months is the polite time to query if you don't hear back on a submission. Possibly as little as 3 months. A polite &quot;do you ahve any questions&quot; letter. Make it a VERY professional letter.</p>
<p>Must be good at the agent part. Ivestigate them thoroughly. Bad agents can impact your career. Talk to that agent's authors.<br />Agents are paid for networking, and for domain knownledge of publishing.</p>
<p>Real agents ask for no money beyond perhaps a little for postage.</p>
<p>Build a platform if you are to market that way. At LEAST have a static page.</p>
<p>Don't accpet too many rewrites without a commitment. Ask if you don't understand a request.</p>
